Subcommittee makes recommendation to full school board in wake of incident in which student was dropped off and left when parent was not present.

Michael Gagne Herald News Staff Reporter @HNMikeGagne

FALL RIVER — The School Committee's Facilities and Operation Subcommittee voted unanimously Tuesday night to recommend to the full committee that Amaral Bus Co. be fined $25,000 after a March 25 incident in which a young John Doran Community School student was dropped off at home and left there by bus monitors, even though a parent was not present to receive the child.

The School Committee will take up the recommendation at its next regular meeting May 12. That $25,000 penalty, if assessed, would be used for student safety education.

Fall River Public Schools' chief operating officer, Tom Coogan, said the child has special needs and should have been received by a parent or other designated adult when being dropped off.

Coogan said that, with this particular child, there had been a history of the parent not being present when the child was dropped off. The bus driver and monitor had, in the past, returned the child to Doran, where the mother later picked the child up.

“The parent’s responsibility is to be there to receive,” Coogan said, adding that drivers are supposed to allow a time window of three minutes when dropping children off “to accommodate parents."

"In case somebody is on a phone call, it gives time," Coogan said. "If a parent does not meet them, they return the child to the school.”

The transportation vendor is supposed to notify the school as well as the district transportation office if a child is being returned to the school, Coogan said.

In this incident, the child was dropped off after the monitor and driver escorted the child to the sidewalk and recognized a vehicle parked out front as being the mother’s. They waited a few minutes after the child entered the building. When the child did not come out, they left.

The mother, Coogan explained, apparently assumed that because she was not home, the bus would take the child back to Doran.

That did not happen. But an adult who found the child did return the child to Doran, Coogan said.

“We notified police," Coogan said. "I went to the address.”

By 4:30 p.m., the child was brought to the school, and police were then notified that the child was found and safe.

Amaral officials said both the driver and monitor were immediately fired after the incident.

The incident was reported to the Department of Children and Families, which determined that the monitor and driver had acted negligently, according to school officials.

Andrew Amaral, the company’s transportation director, told subcommittee members the incident was “uncalled for,” adding that the driver and monitor team “made a bad decision."

"They tried to make the best decision," he said. "They know this parent has her issue as far as being there for child.

“They often have to go back to the school. We were trying our best,” he said, adding that often, in lieu of a direct handoff, parents unable to go outdoors have thrown keys out of windows to let children in or have given hand signals from those windows, indicating they’re present to receive the students.

In cases where parents are not present to receive children, drivers complete their routes and then return children to their schools.

“With all of the special needs students, time is of the essence. We need to get them home ASAP or they get anxious,” Amaral said.

Another School Department policy was not followed. The policy states that, if a parent is not present to receive a child on more than one occasion, by the third incident, that child is to be taken to police for a required assessment, Coogan said.

Those incidents are tracked by the School Department’s transportation office.

Coogan noted that this particular case was not reported to the transportation office.

“This was well beyond the three-time rule,” Coogan said.

Despite being accommodating to the parent, “Unfortunately, you end up with situation where they were more and more comfortable with child going back to school," Coogan said.

Subcommittee members sounded somewhat apologetic to Amaral officials before making their determination.

“I know you guys do a good job. You’re not here on trial. It’s a policy implemented years ago,” said subcommittee Chairman Paul Hart.

Amaral officials assured they would be more adamant that their drivers and monitors follow district policy regarding making sure students are handed off to parents.

Hart told Amaral officials, after the vote to assess the penalty, “That’s the policy and we have to follow that. I didn’t enjoy doing that, and I don’t enjoy doing that today.”